If the ghost of
Martin Luther returned on this 500th Anniversary of the Reformation,
perhaps he would wonder what we Lutherans were making so much fuss about. Luther
once said, “I ask that [people] makeno reference to my name; let them call
themselves Christians, not Lutherans. What is Luther? After all, the teaching is
not mine. Neither was I crucified for anyone. St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3[:22] would not
allow the Christians to call themselves Pauline or Petrine, but Christian. How
then could I— poor stinking maggot-fodder that I am— come to have [people] call
the children of Christ by my wretched name? Not so, my dear friends; let us
abolish all party names and call ourselves Christians, after him whose teaching
we hold.”[1]Obviously we did not listen to Luther very well.

According to
tradition, Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the CastleChurch
in Wittenberg on
October 31, 1517. His intent was not to begin a new church. He wanted to reform
the church by ending the sale of indulgences. He believed that the common people
were being sold a bill of goods. In late 1515 Pope Leo X proclaimed a plenary
indulgence in large part in order to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A plenary indulgence
provided remission of all temporal punishment due to sin. It seemed as if
salvation was being put up for sale.

Luther’s protest
against indulgences inspired the three fold rallying cry of the Lutheran World
Federation’s commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the
Reformation: “Salvation—Not for Sale; Human Beings—Not for Sale; Creation—Not for Sale.” Salvation is God’s free gift. It is
not “a commodity on the `religious
market’.”[2]
As a young zealous monk, Luther had agonized over his inability to fulfill the
demands of a wrathful God. The breakthrough for him was his discovery of God’s
amazing grace. During his so-called “tower experience” Luther poured over Romans
1:16–17: “For I am not ashamed of the
gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed
through faith for faith; as it is written, `The one who is righteous will live
by faith.” The gospel of Jesus Christ revealed to Luther a gracious God, who
loves us unconditionally. Salvation is a gift from this gracious God; it is not
for sale. We are made right with God by God’s grace. We cannot do anything to
earn or achieve a right relationship with God.

Luther’s
rediscovery of the power of the gospel was the catalyst that brought Catholic
and Lutheran scholars and leaders together to work on the document From Conflict to Communion:
Lutheran-Catholic Joint Commemoration of the Reformation 2017. On October
31, 2016, Pope Francis, Bishop Munib Younan, former President of LWF, and Martin
Junge, General Secretary of LWF, presided over a joint commemorative service in
Lund, Sweden, kicking off the 500th
Anniversary Year of the Reformation. It was a historic event. This afternoon we
will be part of a historic event when we join our brothers and sisters at Holy
Trinity Catholic Church to commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the
Reformation.

In the Foreword of
From Conflict to Communion the
authors assert that “in 2017, Catholic
and Lutheran Christians will most fittingly look back on events that occurred
500 years earlier by putting the gospel of Jesus Christ at the center.” What
we are waking up to in our time is our fundamental unity in the gospel. It is on
the basis of this fundamental gospel unity that Pope John XXIII, who called the
historic Vatican II Council in 1962, uttered his inspiring words: “The things that unite us are greater than
those that divide us.” Catholics and Lutherans throughout the world are
growing in our understanding that more unites us than divides us. Today we are
commemorating the Reformation. Yet even more importantly, we are celebrating our
unity in the gospel. In From Conflict to
Communion the fourth ecumenical imperative is: “Lutherans and Catholics should jointly
rediscover the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for our
time.”

Luther did not
believe that the reformation of the church was a one-time event or historical
period. One of the classic reformation principles is Ecclesia semper reformanda est— that is,
the church is always being reformed. The church is being reformed today just as
much as it was in Luther’s time. Reformation is not a matter of us reforming the
church. It is about us waking up to how God is reforming the church so that we
can participate with God in that reforming process.

Yes, Luther was a
leader in the Reformation. But his key contribution was his insight into the
gospel of Jesus Christ as the power of God’s reforming of the church. How
encouraging it is that our Catholic and Lutheran leaders agreed on the
importance of rediscovering the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for our
time! Our unity in the gospel gives us a basis to work with our Catholic
brothers and sisters on those issues that continue to divide us. For example, we
will still not partake of communion together this afternoon. But given the power
of the gospel, the time is coming when we will freely partake of the body and
blood of Jesus Christ with our Catholic relatives. Surely God wants all God’s
children to share the body and blood of Christ.

For Luther the
gospel of Jesus Christ was the lens through which he interpreted all of
scripture—the written word of God. One of the defining moments of the
Reformation was Luther’s appearance before the Diet of Worms in April of 1521.
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his advisors, representatives of the Pope, and
political and church leaders from throughout Germany were
gathered. Luther was asked to recant his writings. Empowered by his faith in the
gospel, he refused. Witnesses recorded his famous words: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and
plain reason— and I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they
have contradicted each other— my conscience is captive to the word of God. I
cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither
right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me!
Amen.”

Because Luther
refused to recant, he was excommunicated from the Church— and the dye was cast
for a new church body. In the wake of the Diet of Worms, and for Luther’s
protection, his own Duke Frederick of Saxony had his henchmen “kidnap” Luther
and take him to the WartburgCastle. It was there that Luther worked
furiously on translating the Bible into German. He and other reformers stressed
education so that people could read the Bible for themselves in their own
language.

In John 8:31–36,
the classic gospel text for Reformation Sunday, Jesus tells his followers: “If you continue in my word, you are truly
my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
Inspired by the truth lifted up in this verse, the Lutheran World Federation
adopted “Liberated by God’s Grace” as its overall theme for the commemoration of
the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Jesus’ word assures us we
are liberated by grace. But the truth of Jesus Christ also exposes that we have
all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Ongoing reformation includes an
honest, truth-telling assessment of where the church has fallen short as well as
a celebration of our liberation by grace. In Bishop David Brauer-Rieke’s
“Reformation 500 Reflection” this week, he exhorts people in the Oregon Synod to
adopt “radical honesty as the proper lens
through which to evaluate our own lives, the world around us, and our choices
about how we will live this day.”

In Luther’s 1543
treatise, “On the Jews and Their Lies,” he labeled Jews as dishonest heathens
and expressed hope that German political leaders would seize their prayer books
and torch their synagogues and homes. In April of 1994 our own ELCA formally
apologized for Luther’s anti-Semitic writings. Those writings were used in Nazi
Germany to justify horrific actions against the Jews. “Grieving the complicity of our own
tradition within this history of hatred,” declared the 1994 ELCA statement,
“we express our urgent desire to live out
our faith in Jesus Christ with love and respect for the Jewish
people.”

Luther and his
cohorts were also guilty of violence and persecution against the Anabaptists,
many of whom were burned at the stake or drowned for their theological beliefs.
At the 11th LWF Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2010, delegates confessed
and entered into a new covenant of reconciliation with the Mennonite World
Conference, which traces its roots back to the Anabaptists. In the ongoing
reformation of the church those who abide in the truth of Jesus Christ will both
cling to the assurance of God’s gracious love and face the truth about
themselves.

In the biblical
tradition there is no such thing as knowing the truth without acting on that
truth. Those who know the truth are free, free to love and care for our
neighbor, free to be responsible citizens, free to care for our Earth home and
all its inhabitants.

Today we are
commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. At the same
time we are entering into the next five hundred years of the reformation of the
church. Here at St. Andrew the gospel of Jesus Christ is waking us up to God’s
priorities in our time and place. We are waking up to God’s call to welcome the
stranger. Presumably that is why we adopted our Welcome Statement, five years
ago, why we sponsored a Syrian Muslim refugee family, and why we are exploring
what it means to be a sanctuary congregation.

We are waking up
to God’s call to pursue justice. Presumably that is why we are joining MACG, the
Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Good, and why we are getting involved in
Family Promise, which helps families avoid long-term
homelessness.

And we are waking
up to God’s call to seek peace. In a haunting scene in the gospel of Luke Jesus
weeps over Jerusalem, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on
this day the things that make for peace!” As racial violence rears its ugly
head in places like Charlottesville, as the political divide in our nation
widens and public discourse sinks to new lows, as religious violence plagues
places like the Middle East and Myanmar, as we human beings continue our assault
on our Earth home and its inhabitants, as the winds of war blow ever stronger in
Northeast Asia, surely the risen Jesus must be weeping.

Brothers and
sisters in Christ, the reformation is not over. God has plenty of reforming work
for us to participate in. Such work will be done in a spirit
of truth. Such work will be done in the power of the gospel. What a joy it is to
know that we do this work in partnership with our Lord Jesus and with our
brothers and sisters in congregations like Holy Trinity Catholic! What a joy it
is to be reassured again and again that as we engage in ongoing reformation we
are deeply loved by a gracious God all along the way.